He's not the nice guy some people laud him for. Beterbiev beat the brakes off him and this clown never showed respect afterwards. Bitter loser. Bivol and Beterbiev are two gentlemen that's for sure.
Think of it from Gvozdyk's perspective. He held a belt at 175 and was in the exact same position as Bivol a few years ago. If Canelo were moving up when he was champ it would've been him who was got the call, him who had the "shocking upset win over the p4p #1" and him who would've made many many more millions. Instead he got beat down by perhaps the most savage puncher in the sport in front of about 800 people for peanuts. In Gvozdyk's mind if Canelo won then this timeline is still possible.
Bears repeating: Canelo sparred Gvozdyk for this fight. That may well have a bearing on why Gvozdyk said that.
He was also Clen's sparring partner for this fight and even though it's a terrible take, to be fair, maybe it looked like a lot of those shots Bivol blocked were landing from ringside. As for the Russian thing. He's friends with Kovalev
I don't think Adonis Stevenson had any career left at 41 years old, but Gvozdyk certainly put the final nail in the coffin.
you can't make excuses after the fight for a guy who was undefeated for 8 years, had been world champ for 6 years, was number 2 or number 1 in his division and was only a slight underdog going into the fight. The Ukraine olympic team of 2012 was unreal, shame Gvozdyk retired early.
Excuses? 41 year's old is a very valid excuse. That's almost 10 year's removed from a person's physical prime. Can you imagine Gvozdyk fighting at 41 year's old? Most fighters, including almost every ATG, are beyond finished at that age. Gvozdyk retired after getting demolished by Beterbiev and deciding he didn't want that to happen again. No shame in that, he can chill with his wife and kids, and also hate from the outside.
@Boon I disagree. You judge it on fighters individually. Usually most fighters are past it at that age yes. But Stevenson hadn't shown any signs of that, he was KOing world level fighters one after the other. Kovalev-Stevenson was being talked about as a super fight at the time. He was still a beast. Probably one of the main reasons Gvozdyk retired was being mentally affected by almost murdering Adonis Stevenson.
This is a ridiculous take, there's countless guys on this forum who are brimming over with bat**** crazy **** takes, some would even accuse me of the same, I don't think that reflects badly on someone enough to accuse them of being a bad guy. We need to learn how to disagree again, and not reflexively jump to the, "he's wrong and that makes him EVIL!!!!" response when we find someone's opinions or even personal failings slightly objectionable. Also, going to war with and winning 5 or 6 rounds off of a terrifying undefeated KO artist, and finally succumbing isn't haven't the brakes beaten off of you. It was a competitive match, and one of the fights of the year, he lost in a valiant effort. Also, where's this bitterness you speak of? This is his take on is loss to Beterbiev. “Somebody was prepared better. It was him. I was less prepared for this fight. Things happen, you know? **** happens.” That sound like a fairly accurate assessment. If anyone is bitter, it's you, towards him. That being said, I totally disagree with Gvozdyk's take here. But, he is friends with Canelo, so maybe he was just trying to be nice. He even said maybe he needs to see it back on tape. It wasn't like he was being some angry abrasive absolutist with his take
Ukranians salty af.. and they should blame their own poltiicians for not remaining neutral and being US/NATO ***** tbh.. Anyone who knows US foreign policy will tell you they don't give af about Ukranian people and are just using them to weaken Russia.
Can't blame the ordinary Ukrainians, they're just as much in the dark as the rest of us. We trust the elites too much, both in the west and the east.